Following its purchase by digital media giant Starboard, Parler, a conservative social network popular with fans of former US President Donald Trump, was taken down earlier this week.
The platform’s new owner, Olympic Media, which previously owned it, made the announcement on Friday. Parler has been shut down “as currently constituted” “to undergo a strategic review,” according to a statement posted to the platform’s main page by Starboard.
It was not specified when Parler would return or what changes the new owners intended to make. Starboard, on the other hand, claimed to see “tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities.”
“No reasonable person,” according to the new owners, “believes that a conservative-only Twitter clone is no longer a viable business.” Ryan Coyne, CEO of Starboard, said his organization is looking forward to including the social media platform’s audience “across all of our existing platforms.”
Coyne founded Starboard in 2018, which also features a number of other conservative websites, including American Wire and BizPac Review. By the end of the second quarter of 2023, the company expects the agreement to purchase Parler to be accretive.
The news comes months after a different proposal that would have seen American musician Kanye West, who has officially changed his name to Ye, buy Talk failed. He attempted to buy the social networking site after it was banned from Twitter and Instagram. He has been blocked by the two biggest social media platforms for statements he made regarding Jews.
Parler said the company and West did not finalize the contract in December. TechCrunch quoted the former owner of the social networking site as saying, “Parlement Technologies has confirmed that the company has mutually agreed with Ye to terminate the intent to sell Parler.”
Rebekah Mercer, a millionaire and co-owner of conservative news site Breitbart, and John Matze created Parler in 2018. After Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building, the social network was banned from Google Play and Apple App Stores for allowing “violent content”. .” At that time, Amazon also removed it from its web hosting service.
It returned to the App Store in May 2021 after tighter content restriction. It was reinstated by Google Store in September 2022.